


that's what people do

by notwit



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4852751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notwit/pseuds/notwit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of ficlets based in the borderlands universe (mostly tftbl for now).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Death of a Hero

"Rhys, man….are you okay?"

Vaughn's voice comes quiet and calculated and yet it still causes him to jolt a bit in his chair. Rhys shakes his head slightly, attempts to clear it, before glancing back at his best friend.

"Yeah," he scoffs out with a dismissive wave of his right hand, feigning offense at the idea of him being anything but okay, "Why wouldn't I be?"

The shorter man raises a brow at him, crossing his arms.

"You _have_ heard, right?"

Rhys bites the inside of his cheek and quickly turns his attention to the screen on his desk, scanning over lines of text without really taking any of it in. Of course he had heard, the whole damn _galaxy_ probably knew by now. There's a small sigh behind him.

"Listen, I just wanted to make sure that you're okay, I mean…" Vaughn trails off and glances up at the motivational posters that still hung above Rhys' desk, "I know that you…looked up to him."

Rhys lets his head fall back and his shoulders slump with a groan. He _really_ didn't want to get into this, not now.

"I'm fine," he reassures, a bit too loudly and harshly. A moment of silence passes between the two and he takes a deep breath through his nose before turning his chair around to really look at Vaughn. He continues, a bit more softly now, "Really, I am."

"Yeah…sure, man," Vaughn answers in a very clearly not convinced tone, "You know where to find me if you want to talk sometime. Yvette won't let you get out of buying us lunch today just because of this, y'know."

Rhys rolls his eyes and waves a hand again for an answer, turning his chair back to face his desk as Vaughn walks off with a shrug. He leans back, letting his eyes land on the poster on the wall for the first time since the news had spread throughout the company. In the back of his mind, he wonders if he'll ever have the heart to take it down. Heroes never truly die, though, he tells himself. And what better to serve as a daily reminder of exactly where Rhys wants to get in Hyperion than the image of Handsome Jack himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuck if i fuckin know how to title these. give me a shout if any additional tags need to be added.  
> you can find me on tumblr at [notwit](http://notwit.tumblr.com/) or [hyperionwit](http://hyperionwit.tumblr.com/) (can you guess which one is the borderlands side blog?)


	2. Denial

Rhys still expects the extra presence hovering around as he walks through the desert. It's strange to say that he misses it--not that he would admit that, absolutely not. Jack was a terrible man. A genocidal maniac. He had used Rhys. Manipulated him. Lied to him. But still, Rhys missed him. Certainly he could attribute it to--what was it called again, Stockholm Syndrome? Had to be that. Why else would Rhys not be completely ecstatic that his mind and his body was completely his own again.

No, he assured himself. He didn't miss Jack.

A small echo in the back of his mind insisted that it wasn't entirely as he let out a quick, familiar chuckle that he seemed to not notice.

After a moment, he blinked and shook his head slightly, bringing up an arm to rub at his Echo Eye.

He would at least admit to the fact that he was lonely.

He felt a tug at his arm, pulling him into another direction, but gave no response to it.

He did not miss Jack.

Wait--When did he make it to this billboard? He blinks and brings a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, shaking off the fact that he couldn't remember getting there. The sign was old and falling apart, paint chipped and cracked. The design, though, was still familiar and instantly recognizable. Outstretched arms. That smug face. "Welcome To Pandora".

Rhys sneered.

He **DID NOT** miss Handsome Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (i'm honestly not 100% into this one but 'ay might as well post it yeah?)


	3. Angel

_His Angel_. Jack kept referring to her as that. Rhys still had absolutely no idea who exactly this "Angel" was, but he had developed the assumption that it must be Jack's daughter. It would only make sense with the fact that the formerly dead CEO had a picture of a young child on his desk. Jack was certainly, well, eccentric but it wouldn't make sense for him to have a portrait of a child in his office unless they were related, right?

Suddenly, Jack waved a hand in front of his face, giving him a scowl. Rhys stared back at him for a moment.

_Right_ , not blue anymore…

Jack rolled his eyes and turned his back to him, waving his hands emphatically as he talked, going on about how "this damn company has practically fallen apart in my absence" and "I swear, Rhys, all of our employees are completely incompetent". He keeps his face straight despite the swell of happiness in his chest at Jack's use of the word "our".

"Anyways," he finally huffs out and turns back to look at him. He's quiet for a moment, as if he's carefully choosing his words (quite out of character for him, Rhys doesn't think he's shut up since he regained a physical body). A look pulls at his face that doesn't seem to quite fit either, it's…almost, soft? Rhys frowns very slightly. "Look, I'm just…I'm glad that you're coming with me for this."

The words come out rushed, Jack is obviously trying to push whatever was in that look out of him. His head cocks to the side.

"Y'know, I think Angel will like you," he comments thoughtfully, pointing a finger not quite at Rhys, but in his general direction.

* * *

In the entire time that Rhys has known Jack, hell even just known of him, he's never seen him in quite this state. He honestly doesn't think that he should be seeing him like this. He's enraged, which isn't new at all, but it's a very quiet sort of seething. There's no action, Jack is just standing there, staring ahead into an empty room, visibly tense. Rhys has never seen him so still, Jack was always on the move, always busy.

He wants to say something, almost feels like he should say something, but he's honestly afraid to bring any attention to himself at the moment so instead he quietly looks around the room. There's nothing to suggest that anyone had been living there recently, or that anyone should have been living there at all, at any point. If Jack had been keeping "his Angel" here, he wondered what kind of life she must have been living.

Suddenly, Jack moves. His shoulders have dropped slightly but they're still tense, forced into a seemingly relaxed and casual position. He takes a deep breath before raising his right arm, pointing a finger, jabbing it towards Rhys.

"I….I need to know what happened," he says, slowly and quiet at first but as he goes on his voice raises and sounds almost panicked, "I need to know **EVERYTHING** that happened here." As he says 'here' he jabs his finger at the floor and his voice just barely cracks. There's a look in his eyes that sends chills through Rhys, it's somewhere between rage and utter despair and he hopes that he never has to see that look ever again.

After a moment, Rhys simply nods, feeling out of place and as if speaking here would be somehow disrespectful.

Jack is quiet again for a moment before continuing, his voice somewhat more steady now.

"I'm gonna find those vault hunters--those villains…and I'm going to kill them, even if I have to completely tear apart Pandora to do it."

It was a promise and Rhys couldn't find it in himself to really think about what that meant for now. He simply gave another nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to an anon for this prompt. ♥  
> [feel free to send some ficlet ideas my way.](http://hyperionwit.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
